Prevention strategies applied to prevent child sexual abuse in high-risk communities in the North West Province: A qualitative exploration

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains the most pressing and detrimental issue worldwide but is even more persistent in communities in South Africa where children are daily exposed to sexual abuse. Although all children are vulnerable, children living in high-risk communities are more prone to CSA. Therefore, it is essential to develop CSA prevention strategies, specifically for high-risk communities, to stop CSA before it occurs. Given the shortage of CSA prevention programmes specifically for high-risk communities, the manuscript details a qualitative study in which ten Department of Social Development (DSD) social workers from the North West Province participated in semi-structured online interviews to learn about the most recent preventative strategies being applied in high-risk communities in the North West Province. Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data. The findings reveal that CSA prevention programmes must have select characteristics, these include but are not limited to: parental involvement ought to be crucial to CSA prevention; the use of activities, techniques and programme content to enhance CSA prevention; several approaches to CSA prevention, such as: primary prevention; collaborative efforts; and aspects to increase the efficiency of CSA prevention programmes.